Take a bow, Jonathan Taylor.
In the second quarter of Saturday’s Capital One Orange Bowl, the Wisconsin Badgers’ freshman running back took a handoff from Alex Hornibrook six yards to pass Adrian Peterson for the most rushing yards in a freshman season in NCAA history. Peterson set the previous record with Oklahoma in 2004, when he rushed for 1,925 yards.
Taylor came into Wisconsin’s latest New Year’s Six bowl berth needing just 79 yards to pass Peterson, so it’s not much of a surprise that he took care of business before halftime. Taylor entered the break with 85 yards on 16 carries.
Of course, you’ll notice a familiar name in the tweet above from Wisconsin’s football page. The Wisconsin State Journal’s Jim Polzin explained how Ron Dayne’s numbers compare to Taylor’s, and how some typical bureaucracy muddies the “official” record keeping.
Jonathan Taylor: Most rushing yards by a freshman in FBS history.
— Jim Polzin (@JimPolzinWSJ) December 31, 2017
Jonathan Taylor: Second-most rushing yards ever by a UW freshman.
Both true, thanks to the NCAA's bizarre record-keeping.
The NCAA didn't start counting bowl games until after Dayne's career was over, so he doesn't get credit for the Copper Bowl. But UW counts bowl games in its records, so Dayne had 2,109 yards as a freshman. Make sense?
— Jim Polzin (@JimPolzinWSJ) December 31, 2017